This course is available to watch online
Delivered by: By Professor Ovamir Anjum [The University of Toledo]
An intensive weekend study of Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s classic work on spirituality, “Madarij al-Salikin” which was an extensive commentary of Manazil-u Sa’ireen (Stations of the Seekers) by Abu Ismail al-Ansari al-Harawi al-Sufi, a Hanbali scholar from Herat, Afghanistan.
This course will be based on the Madarij as-Salikeen is one of Ibn Qayyim al Jawziyya’s most well-known, and arguably his most developed spiritual work. The madarij is best understood as an expanded commentary on a terse Sufi classic, Manazil as-Sayireen, authored by the renowned Sufi master, Abu Ismail Abdullah al Harawi al Ansari. Widely read and admired, the Madarij is appreciated amongst contemporary Arabic readers for its piercing spiritual and psychological insight, literary charm and its potential to bridge the Sufi and Salafi divide.
The course will cover the following:
- Introduction to Madarij; Ibn Qayyim’s literary career
- Introduction to Manazil al-Sairin and its author.
- Brief overview of figures in the history of Islamic spirituality and tariqas i.e. such as Hasan al-Basri, Dhun Nun al-Misri, al-Junayd, Ibn al-Jalla’, Tirmidhi, Ghazali, Ansari, Abdul Qadir Jilani, Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) and Rumi. And their responses through Ibn Taymiyya, Ibn al-Qayyim, Sihindi, Shah Wali Allah, Sannousi, Mahdi, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab
- A deeper look at the Madarij taking selections from the text: – Re-found: Al-Fatiha, Issues around guidance, epistemology and gnosis – Explicate, recover and reclaim: Revive the best of all practices, al-Ansari’s original insights and passion and what he meant by maqam, haal, tasawwuf, tartib, trichotomy and looking at al-Yaqazha – Excuse and Reinterpret: Ibn al-Qayyim and Shatahaat; Ibn Taymiyya and al-Hallaj; excuse for sins; tawakkul – Critique: “Shaykh al-Islam [al-Ansari] is dear to us, but the truth to us is dearer.”; Station of Annihilation (fana’); Station of Tawhid
- How to read Madarij.
- Extensive Q & A sessionsions
Professor Ovamir Anjum [The University of Toledo]
Professor Ovamir Anjum is Imam Khattab Chair of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy, University of Toledo. His work focuses on the nexus of theology, ethics, politics and law in classical and medieval Islam, with comparative interest in Western Thought. His interests are united by a common philosophical focus on epistemology or views of intellect/reason in various domains of Islamic thought, ranging from politics (siyasa), falsafa (Aristotelian Islamic philosophy) and spirituality (Sufism, mysticism, and asceticism). He brings this historical knowledge to bear on issues in contemporary Islamic thought and movements. He obtained his Ph.D. in Islamic Intellectual history in the Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison. His Ph.D. dissertation is titled “Reason and Politics in Medieval Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment.” He holds a Masters in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During 2007-2009, he served as the Senior Fellow of the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, UW-Madison, and taught in Religious Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Among other projects, he is currently working on a book on Islamic political thought which revises conventional wisdom on the subject by arguing for its continued vitality and relevance and offers an alternative way to read the influential Muslim jurist and theologian, Ibn Taymiyya. In another work, he analyses and translates Ibn al-Qayyim’s spiritual classic, Madarij al-Salikin.
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It costs £50 / $80 (please that is a 12 hour video ) to watch and you have a month to view it.
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